Apple climbs past LG to become the world’s #3 phone manufacturer

IDC, a technology research firm, released statistics today on the data it gathered on mobile phone sales in Q4 2011. According to the numbers, Apple is now the third largest phone manufacturer in the world by shipments, surpassing LG. Apple’s record-breaking iPhone sales last quarter skyrocketed the company into an easy third place, claiming 8.7 percent market share.

Nokia and Samsung still hold their respective positions as the top phone manufacturers by a long shot. Last quarter, Nokia shipped 113.5 million mobile phones and Samsung shipped 97.6 million. After that, shipments drop significantly to Apple’s 37 million. Comparably, that doesn’t seem like a lot, but keep in mind Apple only ships iPhones. That’s it. Samsung and Nokia ship all sorts of smartphones and basic dumbphones. Looking at it from that perspective, it’s quite astonishing.

Coming in after Apple is LG with only 17.7 units shipped and ZTE with 17.1. The grand total of mobile phones shipped in Q4 factoring in all other manufacturers as well? 427.4 million. That’s a year-over-year change of 6.1 percent, which was overall a bit lower than expected.

“The introduction of high-growth products such as the iPhone 4S, which shipped in the fourth quarter, bolstered smartphone growth. Yet overall market growth fell to its lowest point since 3Q09 when the global economic recession was in full bloom,” said senior research analyst at IDC, Kevin Restivo.